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10 Killed, Including Two Children, in Overnight Iranian Missile Strikes
Smoke billows following missile attack from Iran on Israel, at Tel Aviv, Israel, June 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Gideon Markowicz ISRAEL
i24 News – Israel continues to recover from one of the deadliest escalations in its ongoing conflict with Iran after an unprecedented overnight missile barrage left at least 10 people dead, including two children, and hundreds wounded.
Rescue operations remain underway, with emergency services still searching for survivors trapped beneath collapsed buildings.
The heaviest damage occurred in Bat Yam, just south of Tel Aviv, where a residential building suffered a direct hit from an Iranian missile carrying heavy explosives.
Six people, including two children, were killed instantly. In the immediate aftermath, at least seven people were reported missing. However, emergency services have since located four of the missing individuals alive and receiving treatment in hospitals, reducing the number of missing persons to three.
Rescue teams from the Home Front Command continue complex operations at the Bat Yam site, where portions of the building remain dangerously unstable. Large sections of the structure are partially suspended, threatening the safety of both those trapped and the rescuers. According to authorities, the projectile that struck Bat Yam was not a new model but part of a salvo of known long-range heavy munitions, each containing hundreds of kilograms of explosives.
The building that was hit also housed a command center and shelter on the ground floor, though most of those located on the upper floors managed to escape unharmed. Victims were primarily found in unprotected areas of the structure.
In a separate strike in northern Israel, an Iranian missile hit a home in Tamra, killing four members of the same family and injuring 20 others. The attacks mark one of the most devastating nights in Israel since the beginning of the conflict.
Meanwhile, further south, Home Front Command rescue teams managed to pull a Holocaust survivor from the rubble of a damaged building in Rehovot. His son, present at the scene, embraced the rescue teams and thanked them for saving his father’s life. Nearby, the Weizmann Institute also sustained damage, with fires breaking out in some laboratories following another missile strike.
The Iranian barrage, launched in response to Israeli airstrikes on Tehran’s nuclear infrastructure, included not only missiles but also reports of drone activity and launches from additional regional actors, including Yemen. Israel continues to face simultaneous threats across multiple fronts.
As the situation remains volatile, Israeli defense forces remain on high alert for further escalation while search and rescue teams continue their dangerous work in hopes of locating the remaining missing individuals.
The post 10 Killed, Including Two Children, in Overnight Iranian Missile Strikes first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Norway Wealth Fund Excludes Six Israeli Companies Linked to West Bank, Gaza
A view shows the building of Norway’s central bank (Norges Bank) in Oslo, Norway, June 23, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Victoria Klesty
Norway‘s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, will exclude another six Israeli companies with connections to the West Bank and Gaza from its portfolio following an ethics review, it said on Monday.
The $2 trillion wealth fund did not name the companies it had decided to exclude but said they would be made public, along with specific reasons, once the divestments were completed.
One possibility is they include Israel’s five largest banks, which have been under review by the fund‘s ethical watchdog.
Separately, the fund said it had also sold stakes in six other companies following a decision last week to only hold stakes in Israeli companies that are part of the fund‘s benchmark index.
As of Aug. 14, the fund had 19 billion crowns ($1.86 billion) invested in 38 companies listed in Israel, the fund‘s operator Norges Bank Investment Management said, a reduction of 23 companies since June 30.
“More companies could be excluded,” Norwegian Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg told reporters.
ETHICS REVIEW
The fund launched an urgent review earlier this month after reports that it had built a stake in an Israeli jet engine group that provides services to Israel’s armed forces, including the maintenance of fighter jets.
The reports spurred a fresh debate about the fund‘s investments in Israel and the Palestinian territories ahead of elections on Sept. 8, with some parties calling for the fund to divest from all Israeli companies, a step the government has ruled out.
Norway‘s parliament in June rejected a proposal for the fund to divest from all companies with activities in the Palestinian territories.
“This debate helps sharpen our practices,” said Stoltenberg.
Critics say only a complete withdrawal from investing in Israeli companies would protect the fund against possible ethical breaches.
Stoltenberg said that, from now on, the ethics watchdog and NBIM would have more frequent and faster exchanges of information to more rapidly identify problematic companies.
Ethical exclusions from the fund are based on recommendations from the fund‘s watchdog, though NBIM can also divest from companies if it assesses that a company poses too much of a risk to the fund, whether the risk is ethical or not.
“With more exchanges of information between the Council on Ethics and Norges Bank, it is possible that there could be more divestments of that kind in future,” said Stoltenberg.
Last Monday, the fund announced it was terminating contracts with all three external asset managers who handled some of its Israeli investments.
($1 = 10.1890 Norwegian crowns)
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Iran Says It Will Continue Talks With IAEA After Curbing Access
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi meets with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Tehran, Iran, Nov. 14, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iran will continue talks with the UN nuclear watchdog and the two sides will probably have another round of negotiations in the coming days, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told state media on Monday.
International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors have been unable to access Iran‘s nuclear sites since Israel and the US bombed them during a 12-day war in June, despite IAEA chief Rafael Grossi stating that inspections remain his top priority.
“We had talks [with the IAEA] last week. These talks will continue and there will be another round of talks between Iran and the agency probably in the coming days,” Baghaei said.
Tehran has accused the IAEA of effectively paving the way for the Israel-US attacks with a report on May 31 that led the IAEA‘s 35-nation Board of Governors to declare Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations.
The Islamic Republic has long denied Western suspicions of a covert effort to develop nuclear weapons capability, saying it remains committed to the Non-Proliferation Treaty that mandates peaceful uses of atomic energy for signatories.
“The level of our relations [with the IAEA] has changed after the events that took place, we do not deny that. However, our relations…remain direct,” Baghaei said during a televised weekly news conference.
Last month, Iran enacted a law passed by parliament suspending cooperation with the IAEA. The law stipulates that any future inspections of Iranian nuclear sites needs approval by Tehran’s Supreme National Security Council.
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US Envoy Says Israel Should ‘Comply’ With Lebanon Plan to Disarm Hezbollah
US Ambassador to Turkey and US special envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack speaks after meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, in Beirut, Lebanon July 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Top US envoy Thomas Barrack said on Monday Israel should comply with a plan under which Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah would be disarmed by the end of the year in exchange for a halt to Israel‘s military operations in Lebanon.
The plan sets out a phased roadmap for armed groups to hand in their arsenals as Israel‘s military halts ground, air, and sea operations and withdraws troops from Lebanon‘s south.
Lebanon‘s cabinet approved the plan‘s objectives earlier this month despite Iran-backed Hezbollah’s refusal to disarm, and Barrack said it was now Israel‘s turn to cooperate.
“There’s always a step-by-step approach, but I think the Lebanese government has done their part. They’ve taken the first step. Now what we need is Israel to comply with that equal handshake,” Barrack told reporters in Lebanon after meeting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.
Barrack described the cabinet decree as a “Lebanese decision that requires Israel‘s cooperation” and said the United States was “in the process of now discussing with Israel what their position is” but provided no further details.
Under phase 1 of the plan, which was seen by Reuters, the Lebanese government would issue a decision committing to Hezbollah’s full disarmament by the end of the year and Israel would cease military operations in Lebanese territory.
But Israel has continued strikes against Lebanon in the weeks since the cabinet approved the plan.
In a written statement after his meeting with Barrack, Aoun said that “other parties” now needed to commit to the roadmap’s contents.
Calls for Hezbollah to disarm have mounted since a war with Israel last year killed 5,000 of the group’s fighters and much of its top brass and left swathes of southern Lebanon in ruins.
But the group has resisted the pressure, refusing to discuss its arsenal until Israel ends its strikes and withdraws troops from southern Lebanon.
On Friday, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem raised the specter of civil war, warning there would be “no life” in Lebanon should the state attempt to confront or eliminate the group.